Advancing and building

Brighton High School boys’ soccer looks to continue the excellence this year that garnered them the Les Schwab Academic Champions Trophy last year. “We want to continue to improve our athletic performance and maintain our academic excellence,” Coach Kevin Barnes said. “The varsity team had the highest grade-point average of any 5A men’s soccer program in the state last season. It’s important to do this and improve our record within the East Metro Athletic Conference.” Barnes’ goal has always been to offer an outstanding athletic program, in which players seek out and are proud to achieve high academic performance. This is Barnes’ fourth year as head coach of the Bulldog’s men’s soccer program. The team has four returning seniors. EMAC leagues’ second-leading scorer from last season, Tanner Barnes, who plays attacking midfielder; Andre Salazar, who plays attacking midfield and forward; Jonathan Espinosa, a tenacious defensive midfielder; and fourth-year letterman Tristan Davolt, who plays central defenseman. “My expectation is that all of these boys put forth the effort to become varsity starters, although at this time the team rosters haven’t been determined,” he said. “Returning varsity members from last season include Ruben Castro, David Compean, Abiram Hernandez, Dalton Oberfoell, Maro Rivas, Rodrigo Valazquez and Landon Verbeek.” Returning from last year’s junior varsity team are Evan Cochran, David Donlucas, Jorque Esquivel, Jose Estrella, Austing Fordyce, Jesus-Adrian Herrera, Jose Ibarra, Jesus Mendoza, Camden Poppie, Jose Rios, Alejandro Rodriguez, Colton Rupple, Tanner Ruple, Enrique Salgado, Andrew Sorenson and Brady Strong. “We had eight seniors graduate last year, which is tough, but we have a solid core of sophomores and juniors coming up, as well as a couple of freshmen that are capable of making the varsity squad, so there’s a lot of depth” Barnes said. “We’ll field full junior varsity and varsity squads, and have enough players for a C team. If the bond initiative is successful, maybe there’ll be budget enough for a C team in the future. Our player counts certainly support that kind of involvement, and that kind of program would definitely make us more competitive against other teams in the EMAC that field three and even four teams (D, C, JV and varsity).” Barnes said another goal for the team are retaining qualified personnel on the coaching staff that will continually elevate the program. “They’ll also have a clear understanding of the goals of our program,” he said. “We’ve dismissed coaches in the past who didn’t meet that criterion and as head coach, to continually elevate the program, I always keep that in mind.” Both Brighton and Prairie View play in a very competitive league. “Rangeview has a substantial program with four teams to draw from,” he said. “As I understand, Hinkley and Aurora Central do, as well. Round that out with teams such as Adams City, Gateway, Northglenn, Thornton and Westminster … you can see what I mean. All these programs offer very good teams.” Barnes said Brighton would like to beat Thornton, just to improve from where the team left off. “They were our last match last year, and we played them back to back after losing to Standley Lake 3-2 the night before in double overtime,” he said. “Our local match against Prairie View would likely be the closest thing to a rivalry we have, and that is more because the two schools are close to each other within the community. We’ve done well against that club in the past, and that’s always a good thing.” The majority of the Brighton varsity team members played club soccer together through the summer and did well at tournament. “It shows as these boys know where each other are while on the pitch and have become familiar with playing together at a fairly high level,” Barnes said. During the summer, Prairie View did their usual strength and conditioning camp during July. This is Coach Gonzalo Godinez’ second year as head coach for men’s soccer at Prairie View High School. “My personal goal is to have the student-athletes succeed athletically and academically while doing so, most important, as a team,” he said. “Soccer will be an extension of their academic success.” The team finished their tryouts Friday, and Godinez said they had very systematic tryout drills that enabled the coaches to evaluate individual players on their technical tactical skills more precisely. “We have a very new, young team with six returning varsity players, three seniors, two juniors and one sophomore: Sergio Moreno Ontiveros, Mario Godoy, Tyler hood, Martin Mayo, Kyle Spencer and Nick Maldonado,” he said. Barnes would like more community members to come out to support the Brighton soccer team. “Brighton soccer has definitely come of age,” he said. “Experienced coaching staff has utilized systems of players that were commonly seen during the recent World Cup matches. New uniforms, improved training regiment, new equipment, greater support through our athletics booster also has helped our program grow. Retained academic eligibility, due to our program’s elevated academic standards, enable us to put the best players on the field more often. Even the alumni players acknowledge that the program has seen vast improvement. Now’s the time to come out and support the Brighton High School Men’s Soccer program, enjoy matches, cheer for the team and get excited about our program.” Brighton has a car-wash fundraiser coming up this season. There will also be a plan for the team to do a breakfast fundraiser. Details will be available at and go to the boys’ varsity or junior varsity page under the team selections icon.